I didn't expect that even a dog servant beside the queen could bully me at will. This is really hard to swallow.
"My lady, have some tea to calm down."
The maid knelt on the ground holding a cup of tea. She bravely spoke, her hands trembling slightly, and she did not dare to look up.
When Li Jieyu saw the kneeling maid, looking timid and submissive, and remembered the humiliation she had suffered before, she immediately picked up the tea bowl and threw it on the ground, and then slapped the maid hard twice, before she felt a little relieved.
The maid kowtowed hurriedly, crying but not daring to speak.
"Useless things, what's the point of me raising you? Don't cry, or I'll beat you to death."
Li Jieyu glared at the maid, then turned to look at her confidant Xiao Lan. Xiao Lan sent the maid out and while massaging Li Jieyu's shoulders, she slowly gave her advice.
"Jieyu, in my humble opinion, we can win over the four concubines. With the help of the four concubines, we can compete with the queen. Even if we can't kill the queen, we can at least give her a headache."
After hearing her words, Li Jieyu kept thinking in her mind, and a smile gradually appeared on her face.
The next morning, Li Jieyu sent someone to tell Shen Qingwan to meet up by the lake.
Shen Qingwan held the porridge handed to her by Lianyun, looked at the person who came to deliver the message, and drank two sips thoughtfully.
"I will leave after I finish eating. Please wait for a moment, Concubine Li!"
Lianyun frowned, and after the messenger left, she spoke worriedly.
"Master, why do you want to go? You and Li Jieyu have no friendship. She invited you rashly for no reason. I don't know what she is planning. What if she wants to frame you?"
The more Lianyun thought about it, the more frightened she became. She always felt that her master should not have agreed to it and must have made some excuses before doing so.
"It's okay. I have no intention of competing for favor. Besides, I don't have any leverage over them. Why should we be afraid of them? We just need to be careful."
"No, you should take me with you. If something happens, I can still protect you. At least I can stand in front of you."
Shen Qingwan felt warm inside when she heard Lianyun's words. She couldn't help but want to laugh when she saw her little maid with a righteous look on her face.
"You, this isn't a dangerous place. She can't eat me in this palace. Besides, I'm a concubine, so she doesn't dare to do anything to me."
"But you and Li Jieyu..."
"If you are really worried, just come with me!" Shen Qingwan walked to the lake with Lianyun. From a distance, they saw Li Jieyu walking around in the pavilion with an anxious look on her face.
Li Jieyu also saw Shen Qingwan. She walked over quickly, bowed, and pulled her towards the pavilion.
Lianyun stared at her nervously, afraid that she would do something bad.
"Li Jieyu, isn't it against the rules for you to pull me like this?" Shen Qingwan shook off the hand that was pulling on her sleeve.
"Please forgive me, Your Majesty. I just had something important to discuss with you, so I lost my manners for a moment."
When Li Jieyu heard Shen Qingwan's words, her face darkened. She pinched her fingers into her palms, calmed herself down, and apologized to Shen Qingwan.
Shen Qingwan didn't care. She sat on a small stool and looked at Li Jieyu's red and swollen face with some doubt.
Li Jieyu looked at her doubtful expression and felt a little proud. Although she was beaten yesterday, the nanny didn't use that much force and the slap mark had disappeared long ago. But before meeting Concubine Xian for the first time today, she deliberately made it obvious to scare Concubine Xian.
"Sister Xianfei must have known what happened yesterday. Yesterday, my sister accidentally bumped into the Queen, and the Queen sent her nanny..."
"Forget it. I don't think I have any friendship with the Concubine. If the Concubine has anything to say, let's just get straight to the point!"
Although Shen Qingwan didn't like fighting, she wasn't stupid. She knew the queen couldn't be so stupid. Beating a concubine like this wouldn't do her any good. She might even be accused of being intolerant and mistreating concubines. Shen Qingwan didn't want to listen to those hypocritical words, so she interrupted her and wanted her to get straight to the point.
Li Jieyu's face froze, her expression became more vicious, and she suppressed her anger.
"Haha, then I won't beat around the bush. Although Concubine Xian has only been here for a short time, she must know what the Queen has done. Moreover, you hold a high position, and your father is General Shen. I think you must have suffered a lot of grievances, right?"
Li Jieyu poured Shen Qingwan a cup of tea, looked up at the expression on her face, and spoke in a soft but sinister voice. She just wanted to arouse Shen Qingwan's dissatisfaction with the Queen.
"Sister, you are the apple of the general's eye. You must be very pretty and talented. Your father is also an important official in the court, and is trusted by the emperor. Are you willing to be inferior to others and look at their faces?"
Shen Qingwan looked at her, thinking secretly in her heart, it seemed that Concubine Li came to her to form an alliance, but she did not like the fighting in the harem. For a moment, Shen Qingwan lost interest and looked at the carp in the lake with boredom.
"Sister, why don't you form an alliance with me? Although my position as a concubine is not high, we can definitely fight the Queen together with the four concubines and prevent her from being so arrogant. What do you think, sister?"
Li Jieyu said all this in one breath, thinking that all this was enough to get Shen Qingwan to join her camp, but she didn't hear Shen Qingwan's answer for a long time, so she called Shen Qingwan a few more times.
"Sister, sister..."
Lianyun looked at her queen staring at the lake in a daze and gently tugged at her sleeve.
"Ah, oh, has Concubine Li finished speaking?" Shen Qingwan came back to her senses and looked at Concubine Li with an unpleasant expression, looking quite impatient.
She said it carelessly, feeling a little bored. "I have no intention of fighting, I just want to live a peaceful life in the harem. I am not interested in what Concubine Jie said."
"Your Highness, if you want to live a peaceful life, will others let you live in peace? You are now one of the four concubines, and I am afraid that many people have long regarded you as a thorn in their eyes. Even if you don't want to fight, the turmoil in the harem will never be reduced because of your thoughts."
Seeing that Shen Qingwan was still unmoved, Li Jieyu felt a little anxious. She thought that even if Shen Qingwan didn't care about herself, she would at least think about her father. She didn't believe that Shen Qingwan was really so noble. Who in the harem dared to say that he was 100% clean? Who didn't have a few lives on his hands
"Even if you don't think about yourself, you have to think about the general's mansion and your people. Since ancient times, the former dynasty and the harem have been inseparable. Do you think that if you are framed by a treacherous villain, your relatives will be spared?" Li Jieyu thought in her heart, and did not reduce her words at all, looking at her uneasily.
Shen Qingwan was silent for a moment and did not agree. She just said one sentence and wanted to take Lianyun back.
"The Emperor hopes for harmony in the harem."